Biden Administration Releases DEI Standards for Kidney Transplants

In a memo released on May 8, Xavier Becerra, Biden's secretary of health and human services, said: Announced A new plan to address “racial inequities” in the organ transplant industry. cover Ninety of the 257 U.S. transplant hospitals have proposed a points system to rate eligible hospitals.

Under this points system, hospitals Earn Each successful kidney transplant earns one point, while a kidney transplant to a low-income patient earns 1.2 points as part of a “health equity performance adjustment.”

While the system is ostensibly color-blind, the Biden administration's announcement give Race is a motivating factor: Becerra stated The policy shows the Biden administration is “taking concrete steps to eliminate racial bias from the transplant system.” Quote While 13.5% of kidney transplant recipients and 32% of those on the waiting list are African American, whites make up 61.8% of recipients and only 35.8% of those on the waiting list. (The memo fails to mention that these percentages of recipients are roughly consistent with the most recent census demographic data. U.S. The population is non-Hispanic blacks were 12.2 percent and non-Hispanic whites were 63.7 percent.

Biden Administration Plans assign Each hospital that meets its transplant quota will be paid up to $8,000 per transplant, while hospitals that do not meet their quota will have to pay up to $2,000 per transplant.

The move reflects measures taken in the coronavirus era. included Monoclonal antibodies are allocated using a points system. These race-based allocation systems often give as much or more weight to minority status as age and comorbidities. evaluation Minority status higher than chronic lung disease, Minnesota evaluation Ethnic minority status is considered equivalent to having diabetes or being 65 years of age or older.